Adam's Struggles
by xxPurpleStars3xx
Summary: Adam Banks is in love with Charlie Conway. Everybody knows it. Even Charlie's girlfriend, Linda, knows it! Adam's desperately hoping he'll get Charlie in the end...but will he? Adam/Charlie CHADAM SLASH!


**Disclaimer: I don't own The Mighty Ducks.**

Adam Banks walked through the doors of Eden Hall on a Monday morning, yet another day of torture in his life. The only thing that made it better was the Ducks. Especially Charlie. Mainly because he was in love with the boy.

Yep, Adam Banks was in love with Charlie Conway.

But he was dating Linda, breaking Adam's heart every time he saw them together.

"You okay, Banksy?" Charlie asked, coming up to his locker, which was, coincidentally, next to Adams'. "You're a little quieter than usual. When I usually get here we're louder than anyone in these halls."

"Fine," Adam replied, grabbing his Freshman History book and shutting his locker as Linda came up to them. He walked over to Julie's locker, just down the hall. "Hey."

Julie looked over to Adam and smiled.

"Charlie coming, too? Or is it just going to be the Ducks minus the captain again?" she said.

"Minus the captain."

Julie looked back to where one of her best friends and his girlfriend stood talking and smiling at each other. She looked back at Adam. Everyone on the Ducks knew about Adam's feelings for Charlie. Except Charlie.

"He's going to realize it one day and be extremely upset that he missed his chance," Julie said, grabbing his books and heading outside where the Ducks usually met before class started.

"Hey, where's Charlie?" Greg asked as Julie and Adam sat down.

"Linda," was all Adam had to say and his friends' faces immediately fell.

"Sorry, Banksie," Lester said.

Luis clapped him on the shoulder. Adam nodded his thanks to everybody.

"Adam Banks?" a voice called from behind Adam. He turned around to see a beautiful blonde girl with blue eyes and a thin figure. "Are you Adam Banks?"

"Yeah," Adam said, keeping his voice straight. He knew if he weren't gay he would probably ask this girl out in a second. Then again, he'd have had a girlfriend by now, not pining after the team captain that had been his best friend for four years. "And you are…?"

"Pamela Cole," Pamela said. "You're in Mr. Smith's English class, right?"

By now, Charlie had bid farewell to his girlfriend and headed to the outside table where he usually met his friends. But there was a new voice. A high-pitched voice that was talking to Adam…and he didn't like it one bit.

"Yeah. Oh _I_ recognize you now!" Adam said. "You're the girl with the amazing grammar skills."

A blush spread on Pamela's cheeks.

"Thanks," she said.

"So, what do you need?"

"We have that test on _The Great Gatsby_ in two days, and since you understand it more than me, could we study?"

_No_, Charlie thought, trying to telepathically tell his friend that he shouldn't hang out with this girl. _No_. _Wait, why am I saying no? Shouldn't I be happy he's getting female attention? He never seems to want to go out with anybody I know_.

"Uh, sure. It's spring, so I don't have practice anymore. You want to do it after school? I'll meet you right here, say, three-fifteen?" Adam offered.

_Dammit, Adam!_

"Sounds great!"

"See you then," Adam said, kind of ushering the girl away.

Charlie decided to head over to the group now.

"Nice of you to join us," Guy said.

"Sorry," Charlie said, trying hard not to look at Adam. He felt betrayed. Heartbroken, even, and he had no idea why. "Linda just had to ask me if I could help out with something."

"Looked more like kissing if you asked me," Julie mumbled.

"So, I, uh, just overheard that you have a date with Pamela Cole? Nice, man," Charlie looked at Adam, who just shrugged.

"Not the person I have my eye on. It's just studying."

And not for the first time, the Ducks' hearts broke as they watched the volley of words between the two best friends. One in love with the other, while the other not feeling the same way.

"Who do you have your eye on then?" Charlie asked, just before the bell rang.

Nobody but Charlie had been happier to hear the bell. Charlie was just anxious inside, wondering whom the girl was.

"Gotta get to class. See ya!" Adam yelled, rushing off to the class, as fast as he was on the grass as he was on the ice.

"Never seen him get to class that fast," Connie commented.

"He needs a reason for today?" Fulton asked.

The Ducks' said goodbye to their friends and headed to their respective classrooms. Though, Charlie didn't concentrate, because the fact that his best friend didn't tell him who he had his eye on hurt in more than one way. Why wouldn't he tell him who he liked? And why did it make this jealous-like feeling sit in his stomach?

He liked Linda. Would even go as far to say he _loved_ Linda, so why didn't he feel those butterflies when he saw her that second period?

"Hey, stranger," she said, sitting next to him and kissing him on the cheek.

"Hey," he said back.

But he didn't pay attention in Math either, even though Linda kept playing with his hand, trying to grab it and hold it. But the more he thought about it, the more he wanted it to be _Adam_'s hand. The hand that he had hated up until four years ago, when Adam joined the Ducks. He had even told Charlie once that it was probably the best decision that he had ever made. Even if it _was_ to play hockey against his old team. Charlie couldn't have agreed more in that moment.

Charlie slammed his lunch down in the cafeteria during fifth period lunch with the Ducks.

"You upset or something?" Russ joked.

"Why won't he tell me?" Charlie's voice sounded hurt as he saw Adam go into the lunch line.

"Because that's _his_ business," Julie said.

"I know he told you guys, though!" A lightbulb went off in his head. "Maybe because I know her and he knew I'd be hurt if I found out. It's Linda, isn't it?"

The Ducks looked at each other and burst out laughing.

"Good one."

"Very funny."

"Not in a _million_ years!"

Those words were heard all around the table as Adam came to the table in the midst of the laughter.

"What's going on?" he asked, setting his tray of a hamburger and friends with a water on the table and taking his usual seat.

"I know who you like!" Charlie said.

"W-What?" Banks stuttered. "_How_? And you're _okay_ with it?"

"How can I be okay with you liking Linda?"

"I don't like her. Believe me, there's _no way_." Adam started taking a bite of his burger, then stopped, realizing how those words could have been interpreted. Charlie looked absolutely livid. "That's _not_ what I meant!"

Charlie knocked the chair down and left the cafeteria, leaving an echo of silence in the building. Adam immediately ran after him, calling his name.

"Conway, listen up for a _moment_!" he yelled.

Charlie turned around.

"No! You're supposed to be my best friend, Banksy. I don't care if you don't like her, but I love her, okay?" Charlie said back, realizing what he said.

And there was no way to put Adam's heart back together as those last words came out of Charlie Conway's mouth.

"The reason I said there was no way I could like her is because I don't like girls. I'm in love with a boy, okay? I have been for years now, and _you_ of all people should have noticed!"

"Adam, I—" Charlie started.

"Leave it," Adam said, and went back inside the cafeteria.

Even though Charlie was starving, he didn't go back inside. He didn't want to sit with his best friends and wonder why he hadn't seen it before. Why hadn't he noticed the way his best friend never looked at girls? Never even _once_ talked about a girl he thought was pretty?

As Charlie was heading home that day, he stopped by the table where Adam and Pamela were meeting and studying for Wednesday's English test.

"So, the green light means…?" Adam asked.

"Desire?" Pamela answered.

"Correct." Adam laughed, and then stayed silent.

"Is something wrong?"

_Maybe if I—stop it, Charlie! Don't eavesdrop!_ He thought, but couldn't help it.

"Do you ever feel like…I don't know…you have your own green light? You're Gatsby and your Daisy is _right there_ but can't do anything about it?"

_Who the _Hell_ is it?_

"Yeah, I do," Pamela said, putting her hand on Adam's, making Charlie's stomach go _crazy_. "In fact, I'm actually in love with a guy who's not interested in girls at all. He's interested in his teammate."

"How'd you figure it out?" Adam asked in awe.

_Banksy has a crush on a Duck?_

"Please, everyone but him can see it. His girlfriend can see it," Pamela said.

"Yeah, well, that's the thing that stopping me. His girlfriend and the fact that he has one."

_Guy_, _he must mean Guy!_

And Charlie finally decided to accept it. He wasn't jealous that Adam loved someone on the team and didn't tell him. He was jealous that a _girl_ was hanging off of him and it wasn't him with Adam. It was somebody else.

"He's stupid, you know?" Pamela said.

"Let's go back to _Gatsby_. I don't want to talk anymore about him."

Adam knew that Charlie was just around the corner, something Pamela didn't. So now he knew. If he didn't know it was him, he knew it was a fifty/fifty shot of Charlie guessing it was him or Guy.

"Fine," Pamela said.

Charlie went to the diner where his mother worked and plopped down on one of the seats at the counter.

"Rough day?" his mother asked.

"Did you know Adam was gay? That he loves someone with a girlfriend? He won't tell me who, though!" Charlie responded.

"Really?" Casey said, giving her son a plate of fries. "I had no idea."

In reality, she did have an idea. So did everyone else who knew both boys. They didn't even need to know Charlie and they could already tell that Adam was smitten with a boy that he had already deemed that he could never have.

"And he's in love with a guy on the team that has a girlfriend. It _must_ be Guy," Charlie said, grabbing a French fry.

_This boy is the densest boy EVER! How does he not realize that Adam loves him and he loves Adam?_ Casey thought.

She liked Linda, she did, but she would much prefer him go out with somebody on his own team. While Connie was taken, Julie was the only option, but now she was, and Casey preferred Adam to them anyway.

"You sure there's not another guy on the team with a girlfriend?" she said.

"Well, Luis has a sort-of girlfriend."

"Is the fact that he won't tell you bothering you? Or is it something else?"

Charlie looked at his mother long and hard. What did that mean? Of _course_ it was bothering him that his best friend wouldn't tell him. But was that _really_ it?

"He hung out with another girl today, and I kind of…got jealous. Not in the best-friend-stealing way, but I was more jealous that he would rather be hanging out with a girl than me."

"You have Linda, though."

"Linda…she's great, but I don't know if I feel the same way about her now. I mean, I thought I loved her, but now…"

He had thought about it a lot in the last periods of the day. Adam was his best friend. Adam was nice, and smart and a wonderful player. Some would even say he was cute, hot even. And he was loyal. He didn't _want_ to be on Varsity when he was put on there.

"Now…?" Casey prompted.

"Holy…shit…"

"Language!"

Charlie picked up his backpack and skates and threw back something to his mother about how he needed to go to Edina.

"Did he _finally_ realize it?" Edna asked as she put down a check on a neighboring seat.

"Yep." Casey smiled. "Finally."

As he skated down to Edina, he was thinking of all the things he needed to do. He needed to break up with Linda, first of all. But, right in this moment, he realized that he needed to tell Adam _right now_ that he was in love with him. That it had taken him months and a girl to realize that he was in love with his best friend, and he hoped that the guy that he was in love with was him.

He got to Adam's house and took off his skates, knowing how much Mrs. Banks hated skates in the house. He rang the doorbell.

"Hello, Charlie. This is a nice surprise," Mrs. Banks said, opening the door.

"Is…Adam…home?" Charlie was gasping for breath, he had skated down so fast.

"Um…yeah. He just got back." She opened the door and Charlie _bolted_ in and up the stairs to where Adam sat at his desk doing his homework.

"Adam?" Charlie asked, still gasping for breath, even harder this time.

"Charlie? What's wrong?"

Adam got up from his desk and grabbed his best friend, leading him to sit on his bed.

"I realized something," Charlie said after a few moments. "I don't love Linda."

Adam's heart started to beat faster. He didn't love Linda anymore?

"Yeah?" Adam said.

"No. I, uh…God, I thought this would be easier."

"You can tell me anything. I-I'm sorry I didn't tell you about me. I was just hoping that you wouldn't judge me when I told you."

"Can you at least tell me who it is? The guy you're in love with?" Charlie wanted to take a few minutes to think of what he was going to say to the love of his life.

"It's kind of hard for me to say," Adam said. "But, uh, it's you."

"_Me?_"

Charlie couldn't have been happier in that moment as Adam looked down at his clasped hands.

"Yeah. I mean, you were so welcoming those first few days. And then, you became an amazing friend. I was actually a little surprised when you guys picked me up for the Team USA. I mean, you were gathering everybody and I hoped you guys considered me a friend, and then that just sealed the deal. But the moment I think I fell for you was when we were picking everybody up for that team. We had just done that handshake…and I knew. And that's why being on Varsity made it so hard a few months ago. Not being able to talk to you, especially, or anybody else really hurt. And it _killed_ me when I had to leave the room. And when you didn't believe me and we had that fight."

"It must have broken your heart."

"Not as much as when I saw you kiss Linda."

"I'm breaking up with Linda."

"_What?_ Why?"

"Because I'm in love with you."

The words flew out of Charlie's mouth and Adam's head snapped up.

"M-Me?" Adam asked.

"Bansky, I-I love you," Charlie said, and Adam thought his heart might burst from happiness. "I know it's taken me this long. Me being with Linda must've hurt you in unimaginable ways, I know. I just-I realized that while Linda was great, she wasn't for me. She wasn't exactly my type."

"So, uh…what happens now?" Adam said.

"Well, now we kiss and I go to Linda's and go break up with her."

So, they kissed. It was probably the most amazing kiss either of them had ever felt. Charlie pulled away and they both sighed.

"I have to go break up with Linda, now," Charlie said.

"What are you going to tell her?" Adam said.

"That…I realized I'm in love with my best friend. That I'm gay. That my boyfriend is an amazing guy."

"So, I'm your boyfriend now?"

There was a smile on Adam's face, and even if you couldn't see his face, you could hear the smile in his voice.

"If you want to be," Charlie said.

"I do, believe me, I do."

"One more kiss before I go?"

There was one more kiss, and, reluctantly, Charlie left. Adam's mother came in to see her son lying on his bed with a smile on his face.

"You guys together now?" she asked. "He finally came to his senses?"

"Yeah," he said, and that's all Annabeth Banks needed to know.

Charlie put on his skates and skated the ten minutes to Linda's house. It was around dinnertime now, but he didn't care. He needed to get this over and done with. A clean break.

"Oh, hello, Charlie," Linda's mother, Barbara, said as she opened the door. "Do you want to come in? We were just about to have dinner."

"Oh, uh, no thank you. But, can I speak to Linda?"

Barbara nodded and two minutes later, the brunette beauty came out of her house. She hugged Charlie and tried to kiss him, but he turned the other way.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

He led her to a bench on the side of her house.

"We need to break up," he said, looking her straight in the eyes.

"Is it some other girl? Do you like somebody else?" She stood up in anger. "What is it?"

"It's not another girl, believe me. I just realized I was in love with my best friend, and that they're the only person I want to be with."

"But you said it wasn't another girl!" Linda shouted, and then she got it. "Adam Banks, right? Right?!"

"How the _Hell_ do girls catch _on_ that fast?" he asked.

"I knew it," Linda said in almost a whisper as she sat back down. "I guess I assumed it would happen. _Everyone_ knew he was in love with you, except you."

"_Even you?_"

Linda nodded. "Well, this one's going in the record books."

"A boyfriend breaking up with you because he realized he's gay?"

Linda smiled and nodded again.

"I actually have to get inside, but I'll see you tomorrow," she said.

Charlie nodded and raced off to his house, a huge weight lifted off of his shoulders as he climbed the stairs to his apartment.

"Catch him?" Casey asked as she was setting the table.

"Everyone knew?" he asked.

"Except you."

Charlie sat down and got a text from "Cake-Eater". He _needed_ to change that now, he realized.

_I love you_, it read.

**I love you, too**, his text back said.

_Seriously? My name on your phone is still Cake-Eater? Wasn't that like 4 years ago?_

**Once a Cake-Eater ALWAYS a Cake-Eater**.

"Hey, no flirty texting at the table," Casey scolded. "You can do that after dinner."

Charlie was eager to finish dinner, but his mother had made his favorite, and it didn't happen often. He had to savor it.

Twenty minutes later, he headed up to his room, hanging onto his phone.

Adam was smiling all throughout dinner. His brother, now in college, was not home, so he did not know about the news. Annabeth knew. Philip didn't, and that's what scared Adam the most.

He wasn't necessarily scared of his father, but Philip was very stern, and wanted things done a certain way. His son being gay was probably _not_ that way.

"You have a smile on your face. You _never_ have a smile on your face during dinner," Philip noticed. "What's going on?"

"Are you texting at the table?" Annabeth asked, hearing a buzz.

"Charlie," Adam said, trying to keep the smile off of his face. "Four years later and he's still calling me a Cake-Eater. Basically _no one_ on the team calls me that anymore."

_Did you break up with her?_

A few moments, in the middle of his parents discussion on their day, Adam got another text.

**Yep :) she took it well, too! Apparently EVERYBODY knew that you liked me excluding me!**

"Give it here," his mother said. "You can flirt later."

"Flirt?" Philip asked, looking between his youngest son and his wife. "You and Conway a couple, now?"

Adam looked his father straight in the eyes.

"Yes, Dad. Yes, we are. For a few hours now. I've been in love with him for a few years, and we're together now."

Philip looked at his wife as he continued chewing his steak. He had softened up over the years. He still didn't understand how his kid had come to love being a Duck instead of a Hawk, but he did. Countless times over, he had said Bombay taking him away was one of the best things that had ever happened to him. The Ducks were his best friends, now. Even though Philip didn't like it, he accepted it.

"You—" his fork pointing at his wife, "—owe me ten bucks."

Annabeth smiled as Adam visibly let out a huge sigh and sat back, glad that _that_ was off his back.

"Finish up, and you'll get your phone back," Annabeth said.

Ten minutes later, Adam had finished his food, put his plates in the dishwasher and grabbed his phone out of his mother's pocket, running into his room to text his…_boyfriend_.

The couple met outside the next day.

"You ready?" Charlie asked outside the main door. Adam nodded, but he was still nervous. "We don't have to do this today."

"I've been waiting for this for three years. We're doing this today," Adam said and grabbed Charlie's hand, pushing the doors open.

The hall, which was very noisy, turned silent at the clasped hands of the two hockey players. This was very new to Charlie, and Adam could tell by his pulse speeding up that he was nervous.

"Relax," he said as they got to their lockers. He turned around in the hall. "Something wrong?"

A basketball player came up to them.

"Are you guys a couple?" the player asked. Adam and Charlie nodded. "Everybody pay up your debts!"

"Huh?" Adam asked.

Julie came up and hugged her best friends.

"We all placed bets on you guys! We _knew_ you'd come to your senses sooner or later!" she said. "Well, _Charlie_ would come to his senses."

The rest of the team came up and congratulated the two by cheers and hugs and sayings like they always knew it would happen, and such.

"Chadam, huh?" Guy asked.

"I guess." Charlie shrugged. "Who would've known it would take Pamela Cole to get me to come to my senses?"

"Nobody," Greg said.

The bell rang and while their teammates and the halls emptied out, Adam and Charlie stayed a little longer, neither wanting to go to class.

"I'll see you at lunch?" Adam said, kissing his boyfriend on the cheek and turning away to head to class.

"See you at lunch," Charlie confirmed, heading the other way.

Adam would have to thank Pamela later for yesterday. It helped get him the love of his life.


End file.
